Ablative Material Testing for Missile Radome Applications

Abstract

The next generation of high speed, air to air missiles are expected to have velocities exceeding Mach 4. These high speed flights produce severe thermal and load conditions on the missile’s radome. The radome must be able to withstand aerodynamic heating, mechanical loads and possible rain impingement while still serving as a distortion free electromagnetic window for a complex electronic guidance system. Ceramic materials, such as Pyroceram 9606 or slip cast fused silica, are currently being used as radomes for high speed missiles. Major drawbacks of ceramic radomes are their high initial cost, fragile nature (require frequent replace-ment — thus increasing system cost), and poor performance at off design frequencies (poor broadband or multi-frequency transmission).